Report on future of Leeds Kirkgate market sparks fears

Traders and councillors have raised a string of concerns over the report whose key recommendations include reducing the size of the market

A consultant’s report drawn up to help shape the future of Leeds’s historic Kirkgate Market has come under fire just days after its publication.

Traders and councillors have raised a string of concerns over the report whose key recommendations include reducing the size of the market, handing control to a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) – effectively a limited company – and granting the LLP a 99-year lease.

It puts forward two possible redevelopment options. Under the preferred one, the 1976 building would be demolished and replaced with a new market hall and service basement.

The 1981 building would then be knocked down and the outdoor market relocated onto the site. The current outdoor market site would then be available for redevelopment.

The report says the plans put forward allow for a “tenant reselection process” and tenants reselected may be relocated to a different part of the market.